Lochte, fresh off winning a gold medal with the 4x200m freestyle relay on Tuesday night, said he got about four hours of sleep.
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The 19-year-old American is the heavy favorite to win the grueling race, which would give her a sweep of the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles for the first time since Debbie Meyers of the U.S.in 1968.
Katie absolutely crushed it, powering so fast through the water that by the time she touched the wall and brought victory to her team she was an entire body length ahead of the second place Australians, who had to settle for the silver.
Where does that leave Lochte?
Thinking quickly, they flipped Dwyer’s cap inside out, and Phelps went on to anchor the team to victory.
Ledecky anchored the US women’s 4×200 freestyle relay, leading the Americans cruise to victory ahead of Australia and Canada, who won silver and bronze respectively. Canada took bronze with 336.18.
Lochte finished second swimming in an adjacent lane to Phelps in their semifinal Wednesday.
Phelps could also reach the milestone in the 100m butterfly. “[Phelps] has been talking a lot of smack in the media about how slow the butterfly is, so I just can’t wait until I race him”, he previously told reporters, via Fox News.
Say this for Maryland’s Michael Phelps, the fastest man in swimming: He can go from intense to joyous in the time it takes him to win a gold medal. Bad timing. Yet he can take credit for pushing Phelps, who absolutely hates to lose.
“It’s good consistency, I guess”, she said nonchalantly.
Still, Phelps was not done, putting the finishing touch to a routine win in the 4x200m free, cruising home nearly two and a half seconds ahead of Britain’s James Guy. “We don’t talk about swimming”.
Here are the five biggest events you need to keep your eye on Thursday at the Rio Olympics. The Americans are the top two all-time performers in the event.
“Leaving everything in the pool one last time is what I’m going to do”, Phelps said. “The history we have is something special and something I’ve never had with any other competitor of mine”.
Cate Campbell posted the fastest time in the semifinals, an Olympic-record 52.71 seconds and younger sister Bronte was fifth-fastest at 53.29.
The Brazilians have a stake in the 200 IM, too. And if the Olympics is all about encouraging unity through sport and inspiring people to be the best they can, then they don’t come any more inspiring than Michael Phelps.
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“It’s going to take a flawless performance to beat him”, Lochte said.
